When you start running and your knee hurts before you get to the two minute mark…you know its not going to be your day. I am disappointed with my 2:41 finish (I’ve set PRs in every half I’ve ran and this was not one), but it was the best I could do today.

Today started off with a 4:35 a.m. wake up call and some foam rolling. I was out the door by 5:20 a.m. to meet my friend Brian to take the train downtown. We got on the 6 a.m. train. After finding the bag check and a quick bathroom stop, the race was about to start.

The weather was perfect! It was a little rainy, but my socks were dry the whole time so no complaints from me. Since I had knee pain from the beginning, I did a run-walk. I pretty much walked every four minutes. As the race went on, the pain traveled from my knee up my hip. Can we say IT band?

I was so happy to see my family at mile nine and then again at mile 11. They gave me that extra push I needed to finish and since I was running alone, I really appreciated that they got out of bed early to come see me.

Thank you to everyone on Twitter and Facebook for your support. Your cheers and well wishes made my day.

And now I am off to foam roll and probably cry…

Source

On Sunday, I am running the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon. It looks like its going to be another rainy one, just like last year. Fun.

After Sunday, I’m taking a break from long distances, including the half. I’ve decided not to run the NYC Marathon this year either. My knee really hasn’t gotten better, even though I’ve taken most of winter off from running like the doctor suggested. Since I’ve been training again, I will get random knee pains here and there. I’ve been training very conservatively and haven’t trained as well as I should have. So conservative, I’m afraid this is going to be my slowest race ever. I wish I could tell you this is not going to bother me, but it is.

In order to get a little faster and have a goal, my plan is to run a 5k each month of summer and run the Great Race again in September. I figure this will be a more reasonable goal, especially since I’ve started school again. Only two more summers to go! With school, I really don’t have the time to train for distance. Others may be able to do it, but I cannot balance it.

With a shorter distance to focus on, I’m hoping to get back into weight training more and attend a yoga class or two each week. I’ve never really worked on speed since I’ve been running long distances. I’ve only ran one 5k in the dozen or so races I’ve participated in. Fingers crossed that my knee issues don’t flare up and that foam rolling, icing and stretching keep it under control.

What are your summer training plans?

Sigh. This is a hard post to write. I’ve decided to defer the NYC Marathon this year.

I saw the orthopedic specialist this morning and I didn’t even get to see the cute doctor. I mean, if I am going to get bad news, I want the eye candy. Instead, I got the old guy who didn’t seem to have the most positive outlook on running.

The doctor diagnosed me with tendonitis in my knee, which means the iliotibial band and other knee muscles are inflamed and irritated. The cure is rest, plain and simple. Everyday we get tiny microscopic tears in our muscles and while we sleep, the muscles repair themselves. Mine are just taking a little longer to get there.

I can take all the Advil and ice it all I want, but that is only a temporary solution. I don’t need to go to physical therapy, which the doctor didn’t think would be that helpful. Thank goodness, I don’t have the time or money to go to physical therapy every week.

I could run the marathon, but he said he wouldn’t recommend it and the end result would not be pretty if I was not completely healed. Since I can’t run without pain now and am missing those precious last few runs before it is taper time, deferral it is.

I’ve gone thru the five stages of injury acceptance:

1. Denial - I’ve run through the pain. It did not exist.
2. Anger – I’ve blamed myself, my training, lack of cross-training and not enough stepback weeks.
3. Bargaining – I’ve told myself, a couple of rest days will cure me. I’ll take it easy if I can do a 20-miler (newsflash: I can’t).
4. Depression – I’ve been reading Chicago and other marathon recaps and it makes me sad to think I won’t experience the post-marathon high. I cried in the car after the appointment.
5. Acceptance – Realized it not going to do me any good to run a marathon when I’m not where I want to be physically and mentally. I ran my first marathon under trained and I don’t want to go there again. I’d be in the same situation with not getting the final long runs in.

I don’t want to end up in worse shape than I started, so NYC Marathon 2011 here I come! The good news is I’m still going to NYC and I could not be more excited about seeing NYC in the fall. Being in the same city as the marathon may be upsetting, but I will have to tell myself that will be me next year.

In the meantime, I’m excited to focus on other activities than running for a few weeks. If you’ve been injured, how did you handle the setback?